Leading SA doctor to sue UAE a

Leading SA doctor to sue UAE after 9-month detainment in Dubai

After spending nine traumatic months under arrest in Dubai on ‘spurious’ manslaughter charges, elderly South African oncologist Professor Cyril Karabus is determined to sue the United Arab Emirates

Leading SA doctor to sue UAE a

Karabus

Professor Cyril Karabus said he is planning to sue the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the hospital group that employed him in the country after he was arrested and held for nine months in the UAE on what have been described as spurious manslaughter charges.

Professor Karabus, a 78-year-old leading South African paediatric oncologist, was arrested at Dubai airport in September 2012 while on his way home from Canada. The charges followed the cancer death of a girl, Sara Al Ajaily, who was his patient while he was working as a locum at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City in 2002.
Last month he was released by UAE authorities and returned to South Africa, where he was greeted at the airport by family and friends and a group of supporters. He was cleared of charges in March and won a subsequent appeal, but his return home was delayed due to “administrative issues.”
Karabus’ lawyer Michael Bagraim confirmed on Tuesday that professor was suing the UAE and the Canadian hospital group to which the Sheikh Khalifa Medical City hospital in the UAE belonged.

“We are still waiting for legal advice. I have spoken with a group of attorneys in Canada about suing the hospital group and we have an appointment to see lawyers here in Cape Town.

“Professor Karabus is relishing the prospect of suing. He did not come home relieved, he came home angry. And he still carries this anger within himself,” he said.

Bagraim also said that the incident had cost Karabus R2 million, but the biggest damage was emotional trauma for him and his family.

“The trauma has been enormous and it is going to take a lot of effort from the whole Karabus family to work it all out.

“After all, there was a time when we did not think he was going to come home. There was a time when we did not even know where he was. That sort of trauma is tough,” he added.